Meeting Professional Salaries, Workloads Are Increasing

According to PCMA’s recently released Convene 2017 Annual Salary Survey, most meeting professionals are happy to be working in the profession, 75 percent have earned an average increase of six percent within the last year and nearly 40 percent are dissatisfied with their salaries.

Published last month in Convene, the survey has served as an industry benchmark for several decades.

Completed by more than 800 association, corporate and independent meeting professionals last March, the survey found that the average salary for the role is nearly $82,000, about 2 percent higher than the average salary reported in last year’s survey.

“While the majority of meeting professionals received a regular salary increase over the past 12 months, most of them also said that they had additional responsibilities added to their plates over the past year – for which three-quarters of them were not compensated,” explained Michelle Russell, editor in chief of Convene.

All those extra responsibilities appear to have contributed to the long hours event professionals are working these days. According to the survey, planners are working an average of 46 hours per week and 25 percent are logging more than 50 hours each week.

Here are a few additional highlights:

· The average salary for meeting professionals with 1-3 years of experience is $51,754; 4-5 years, $62,000; 6-8 years, $69,976; 9-10 years, $74,155; and 10+ years, $92,553. More than half of planners surveyed said they earn $70,000 or more annually.

· Salary raises have increased two points to more than six percent this year, compared with the average raise of more than four percent reported in the 2016 survey.

· Event professionals with a CMP took home an average annual salary of $86,847 – around $10,500 a year more than their counterparts without the designation.

· Despite the fact that 90 percent of respondents were women, reflecting a female-dominated industry, the survey results once again indicate that the pay scale is tipped in favor of men. This year, male event professionals out-earned their female peers by 22 percent.

· Regardless of the inequity between sexes and financial compensation, 51 percent of respondents reported being satisfied with their current salary; 71 percent are satisfied with their jobs, and 87 percent are satisfied with the meetings professional as a whole.

“We had our highest response for this survey ever (and) that proves to me that there’s an appetite to discover not only how individuals are compensated in this industry, but to explore the evolving nature of their work and demands on their time,” Russell said.

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